One nice benefit of the iPhone 4S in particular is that you can use a wide variety of photo-related add-ons designed for the iPhone 4, including lens adapters, tripod mounts, and more. Likewise, the iPhone 4S is compatible with dozens of great photography related apps, like Camera+, IncrediBooth, Instagram, Hipstamatic, and apps for shooting HDR images or panoramas.

Other photographers will feel more comfortable with the control that most digital compact cameras have on offer. On this point it's hard to disagree—we've long argued that Apple should add, at the very least, some sort of slider in order to bias the autoexposure in tricky lighting situations. With optional HDR, manual flash override, digital zoom, and viewfinder grid options, this doesn't seem like an unreasonable request.

And photographers accustomed to DSLR quality won't be trading their higher-end gear for a smartphone camera of any kind, iPhone 4S or not.

In the end, the iPhone 4S offers convenience—light weight, fits in pocket, simple controls—along with competitive, if not excellent, image quality. Unless you need or want full manual control or greater versatility in lens options, the iPhone 4S certainly makes a great photographic tool.